University of Illinois alum Michael L. VanBlaricum (BSEE ’72, MSEE ’74, PhD ’76), has amassed one of the finest collections of Ian Fleming material in private hands. He is also President of the Ian Fleming Foundation.

To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of Fleming's first book featuring secret agent "007," James Bond, the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Spurlock Museum, and the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music have invited VanBlaricum to curate a multi-venue exhibition.

Exhibits in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library will include a manuscript copy of Fleming’s earliest surviving short story, dozens of editions, translations, and even parodies of Casino Royale, and Fleming’s letter bludgeoning his friends to actually buy the book.

Also highlighted are selections from Fleming’s notable journalism career, the first editions of all the “Bond” books, original cover art for the 1955 British paperback, and a typescript manuscript of Casino Royale on loan from the Lilly Library at Indiana University.

VanBlaricum will kick off all the festivities with a lecture in Room 66 Library at 3 pm on April 12th. A reception will follow upstairs in Room 346, which will open the Rare Book & Manuscript Library portion of events.

Banker, wartime spymaster, foreign news editor, children’s author (the creator of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and himself a bibliophile, the creator of “Bond, James Bond,” left an indelible mark on twentieth-century culture. This exhibition traces the influence of Fleming’s creation of Bond forward to our own century.